Beit HaShita

Beit HaShita
Beit HaShita Beit HaShita
Beit HaShita
Coordinates:
Region	Eastern Galilee
Affiliation	Kibbutz Movement
Founded	12 December 1935
Founded by	Kvutzat HaHugim/Tnuat HaMahanot HaOlim members
Website	www.beithashita.org.il

Beit HaShita (Hebrew: בֵּית הַשִּׁטָּה‎, lit. House of the Acacia) is an Israeli kibbutz situated between Afula and Beit She'an. It was founded in 1935 on the former lands of the Arab village Shatta after its tenants had been evicted.

Geography

The built-up area of Beit Hashita ranges from sea level to 70 meters below.

History

Ceramics and coins from the Byzantine era have been found here.

Ottoman era

During the Ottoman era, a village named Shutta was located here. It has been suggested that Shutta was marked on the map Pierre Jacotin compiled in 1799, misnamed as Naim.

While travelling in the region in 1838, Edward Robinson noted Shutta as a village in the general area of Tamra, while during his travels in 1852 he noted it as being a village north of the Jalud.

When Victor Guérin visited in 1870, he found here "a good many silos cut in the ground and serving as underground granaries to the families of the village", and "The women have to go for water to the canal of ´Ain Jalud - marked on the map as the Wady Jalud."

In 1881, the Palestine Exploration Fund's Survey of Western Palestine described Shutta as a small adobe village on rising ground, surrounded by hedges of prickly pear and plough-land.

British Mandate era

In the 1922 census of Palestine, Shutta had a population of 280; 277 Muslims and 3 Orthodox Christians, decreasing in the 1931 census to 255; 2 Jews, 3 Christians and 250 Muslims, in a total of 85 houses.

Kibbutz Beit HaShita traces its origin to a group meeting held in Hadera in 1928, by "Kvuzat HaHugim" of the HaMahanot HaOlim movement from Haifa and Jerusalem. The first members lived at nearby Ein Harod until 1934, when establishment of the kibbutz began at its present location about 1km east of the depopulated village of Shatta.

The land of the kibbutz, part of the village land of Shatta including the village itself, was purchased by the Palestine Land Development Company from its Arab owners in 1931. The tenants contested the purchase, claiming to be the rightful owners, but the Beisan Civil Court ruled against them. The fate of the tenants and workers, numbering more than 200, became a matter of dispute between the government, the sellers, and the buyers. The Jewish Agency maintained that the terms of sale were for the land to be delivered free of residents, while the main seller Raja Ra'is apparently made use of loopholes in the law to provide the tenants with compensation below that to which they were entitled. The case led to a 1932 amendment of the law to better protect evicted tenants.

The kibbutz was later named after the biblical town Beit Hashita, where the Midianites fled after being beaten by Gideon (Judges 7:22), thought to be located where Shatta was. It falls under the jurisdiction of Gilboa Regional Council.

In 2015, a grandchild of kibbutz residents, Jasmine Donahaye, published a book "Losing Israel" in which she expressed her disillusionment on learning of the eviction of Arabs on the founding of the kibbutz.

In 1945, Beit hash Shitta had 590 inhabitants, all Jews. It was noted that Shatta was an alternative name.

1948, aftermath

In 1948, Beit HaShita took over 5,400 dunams of land from the newly depopulated Palestinian villages of Yubla and Al-Murassas.

Eleven kibbutz members fell during the 1973 Yom Kippur War, the largest number as a percentage of the population than any other town in Israel.

Beit Hashita served as the basis for the 1981 English language book Kibbutz Makom, which described the kibbutz society.

Between 1985 and 2002, the kibbutz hosted the American Class, a year-long program of High School in Israel for 10th, 11th, and 12th graders from abroad.

The kibbutz has been privatized and today has a population of approximately 1,000. Many of the member families of the kibbutz are secular, therefore the kibbutz is defined as a secular kibbutz.

The kibbutz is home to a Beit Ochel (Dining hall), a gym and a small zoo. Once used and loved by the community members, the dining hall and gym are no longer in use and the zoo is still home to a portion of the animals it once had such as a popular pelican names Pinchas who was featured in a cellphone ad because he once swallowed someones cellphone and the ringing was able to be heard from outside the pelican's stomach.

Beit HaShita has a pickling factory which produces and markets pickles, olives and other pickled vegetables under the brand name Beit HaShita. The factory also produces syrups for making juices under the brand name Vitaminchick. The factory was bought from the kibbutz by the Israeli food manufacturer, Osem.

Notable residents

• Yair Rosenblum
• Alon Azaria
• Moshe Peled

External links

• Official website
• Survey of Western Palestine, map 9: IAA, Wikimedia commons